Initiate file download with Ajax or Post JSON without Ajax

Question

I have a bit of ajax that is working perfectly fine. It posts to a C# controller that returns a file. Unfortunately I think Ajax is unable to initialize the file download. I really need to post JSON. The JSON contains filters that are applied to a table by the user. I have tried posting the JSON as a string from a input but it doesn't work the same and never populates my object. I realize that my C# code below does nothing yet but return a file but I will be adding more to it after I can get the simple file download to work.

Javascript:

$.ajax(
    data: JSON.stringify(model),
    contentType: 'application/json',
    type: 'POST',
    url: 'Respondents/DownloadCSV',
    success: function () { alert('success'); },
    error: function () { alert('unsuccessful'); }
});

C#

[HttpPost]
public ActionResult DownloadCSV(RespondentViewModel model)
{
    string csv = "Name, Source, Email, City, State, Gender, Ethnicity, Age, Last Edit, Owner, Group, Status Date, Status";
    return File(new System.Text.UTF8Encoding().GetBytes(csv), "text/csv", "DispositionReport.csv");
}

Possible duplicate of [jQuery post request (not AJAX)](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4583703/jquery-post-request-not-ajax) — Cindy Meister, Sep 23 '19 at 05:43

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Dec 18 '13 at 18:45

1

I think the problem is the url, change it like below:

url: '/Respondents/DownloadCSV',

answered Dec 18 '13 at 18:45

Lin

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Roman Pushkin · Answer 2 · 2013-12-18T17:45:52.023

0

The solution is:

Return json object with url property

{ redirect_url: '/blabla/path/to/file/download' }

Make redirect to this url via JavaScript, on ajax success

$.ajax(
    data: JSON.stringify(model),
    contentType: 'application/json',
    type: 'POST',
    url: 'Respondents/GetJsonResult', // !!!
    success: function (result) {
            if (result.redirect_url) {
                window.location = result.redirect_url;
            }
        },
    error: function () { alert('unsuccessful'); }
});

edited Dec 18 '13 at 17:45

answered Dec 18 '13 at 17:40

Roman Pushkin

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40
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I am not storing this file on the server. – allencoded Dec 18 '13 at 17:41
@allencoded, that's okay. You can build your url as you want. You can return the url with "get" parameters. – Roman Pushkin Dec 18 '13 at 17:48

Initiate file download with Ajax or Post JSON without Ajax

2 Answers2